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Background: Nursing home (NH) administrators need tools to measure the effectiveness of care delivered at the end of life so that they have objective data on which to evaluate current practices, and identify areas of resident care in need of improvement., Methods: A three-phase mixed methods study was used to develop and test an empirically derived chart audit tool aimed at assessing the care delivered along the entire dying trajectory., Results: The Auditing Care at the End of Life (ACE) instrument contains 27 questions captured across 6 domains, which are indicative of quality end-of-life care for nursing home residents., Conclusions: By developing a brief chart audit tool that captures best practices derived from expert consensus and the research literature, NH facilities will be equipped with one means for monitoring and assessing the care delivered to dying residents.

Despite growing awareness of the benefits of interprofessional education and interprofessional collaboration (IPC), understanding how teams successfully transition to IPC is limited. Student exposure to interprofessional teams fosters the learners' integration and application of classroom-based interprofessional theory to practice. A further benefit might be reinforcing the value of IPC to members of the mentoring team and strengthening their IPC. The research question for this study was: Does training in IPC and clinical team facilitation and mentorship of pre-licensure learners during interprofessional clinical placements improve the mentoring teams' collaborative working relationships compared to control teams? Statistical analyses included repeated time analysis multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Teams on four clinical units participated in the project. Impact on intervention teams pre- versus post-interprofessional clinical placement was modest with only the Cost of Team score of the Attitudes Towards Healthcare Team Scale improving relative to controls (p = 0.059) although reflective evaluations by intervention team members noted many perceived benefits of interprofessional clinical placements. The significantly higher group scores for control teams (geriatric and palliative care) on three of four subscales of the Assessment of Interprofessional Team Collaboration Scale underscore our need to better understand the unique features within geriatric and palliative care settings that foster superior IPC and to recognise that the transition to IPC likely requires a more diverse intervention than the interprofessional clinical placement experience implemented in this study. More recently, it is encouraging to see the development of innovative tools that use an evidence-based, multi-dimensional approach to support teams in their transition to IPC.

This article discusses key findings from a preliminary review of a nursing care delivery model implemented in Winnipeg, Manitoba, by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Home Care Program in 2014. Results suggest that the model is generally seen positively by staff but challenging to implement, given established administrative practices. To meet future demands on the healthcare system, home care programs need policies and procedures that empower nurses to perform as true community health nurses., (© 2016 The Canadian College of Health Leaders.)

This project developed an evaluation platform aimed at diagnosing team functioning using evidence-informed, measurable indicators to provide an actionable roadmap to guide teams in improving their interprofessional collaborative team performance. A scoping literature review, stakeholder consultation, survey and focus groups were conducted to inform both the final selection of eight indicators of effective, high-performing teams and the process to assess and evaluate teams against these indicators. The program was piloted with two interprofessional teams in the Winnipeg Health Region. Focus groups and questionnaires were used to evaluate the program.